The River Nore through Kilkenny Ireland

Since I wrote this page, the municipality of Kilkenny has regulated the flow* of the River Nore....

The River Nore, which runs through downtown
Kilkenny, seems to increase greatly with little
prompting. Normally a small river, in a rain it will
swell by at least three times, by the appearance of it.
Possibly more, since it widens to its banks, deepens by
two feet, and runs faster.

In this state, it is still eight feet from the tops of
its banks  the stone wall quays (pronounced "keys.")

When the water overflows, the general advice for homeowners [according to a co-worker] is
to stay with the property. The protocol is to move the
furniture upstairs  though not always to tell the
insurance company that you did so.

Stay upstairs. When the water recedes, you sweep out the detritus and mud along with the water as it's flowing out.

Much of the natural and historic beauty that characterized a view around John's Bridge is victim to oncoming progress. And it is progress; but with loss.

The river used to be riverine; now it is a channel between walls, through the central city. (Kilkenny is divided by the river, and always has been. Its medieval incarnation spanned the Nore, its main bridge always having stood right there at the site of John's Bridge, give or take a few meters up-or-downstream.)

Now, as of late 2004, the river is dredged, excavated, channeled, and regulated by a weir downstream from John's Bridge and the castle.